State police said the men, identified as 22-year-old Jeremia Fromme and 26-year-old Adam Wilson, walked into the King Buffet on Oakland Avenue in White Township about 2:50 p.m. Fromme allegedly handed a note to a 17-year-old cashier and told her, "Just do it, just do it."

When the girl hesitated, Fromme lifted the front pocket of his shirt, which the employee thought had a gun in it, police said. She then gave Fromme money from the register, police said.

The restaurant's owner, Bin Zheng, told WTAE a customer waiting in line behind the attempted robbers noticed something was wrong, and alerted him. Zheng, along with his brother, stopped the men.

"Kind of like a football tackle, like Troy Polamalu," Zheng said. "But he was fighting like crazy, and almost slipped away."

Zheng said the men wouldn't give up and battled to get out the door, but finally Zheng's staff and a customer in his 60's were able to pin the men down until police arrived.

The cashier is Zheng's 17-year-old niece. He said she was very upset by the attack.

"She's still scared. She was crying yesterday and shaking," he said.

Fromme, of Ernest, was charged with robbery, theft by unlawful taking or disposition, criminal conspiracy and simple assault. Wilson, of Indiana, was charged with criminal conspiracy to commit robbery and conspiracy to commit theft by unlawful taking or disposition.